1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an atomizer, more particularly to an atomizer including an air inlet conduit for accelerating discharging of mist.
2. Description of the Related Art
An atomizer is a device for aerosolizing a liquid with a pressurized air, and has been used in the medical industry for delivering medicines to a patient's lungs.
In order to achieve highly efficient delivery of medicines, an air inlet conduit has been incorporated into the design of the atomizer. FIGS. 1 and 2 show conventional atomizers provided with the air inlet conduit. As shown in FIG. 1, an air inlet conduit 21 of the conventional atomizer 2 is used to introduce external air into an inner space 22 of the atomizer 2. The introduced air accelerates the aerosolizing mist of a drug to flow toward a mist-discharging conduit 23. Since the flow path of the introduced air is tortuous, the efficiency for delivery of the drug from the conventional atomizer to the patient is unsatisfactory.
As shown in FIG. 2, the conventional atomizer 3 includes an air inlet conduit 31 formed with a plurality of holes 311 in a peripheral wall thereof. Although the pathway of the introduced air into the inner space 32 is straight, the introduced air passing through the holes 311 formed in the peripheral wall cannot efficiently accelerate the mist to flow to a mist-discharging conduit due to a relatively long distance from the holes 311 to a mist forming zone S1. The mist is also likely to flow into the air inlet conduit 31, thereby resulting in an unstable output. In addition, in the conventional atomizer 3, since a cap 33 and a jacket 34 are two individual parts, costs for manufacturing the atomizer 3 are increased, and the manufacturing process is relatively complicated. Moreover, since the jacket 34 is relatively small in size, it is likely to be misplaced.
Therefore, there is a need in the art to provide an atomizer that provides a high efficiency for delivery of a drug to a patient's lungs.